As a health care provider, your first priority is caring for patients — and the buildup of everyday tasks like paperwork, scheduling and billing can get in the way of that. Patient management software, or a medical practice management (MPM) system, can free up time, helping you and your staff focus on care delivery rather than these time-consuming operations.

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It is also known as clinic management software, patient manager software or medical patient software. It refers to several efficient automated systems that track patient information, diagnoses, prescriptions, interactions and encounters within health care organizations like medical clinics or hospitals.

What Is Patient Management?

According to the medical dictionary, patient management is “a description of the interaction between the patient and the health care team, from intake to discharge. It includes communication, empathy, examination, evaluation, diagnosis, prognosis, and intervention.”

It aims not only at treating different health conditions of patients but also to forge meaningful relationships with them. This focus builds an intimate understanding between patients and caregivers, which leads to better health outcomes.

Patient management systems are vital in helping health care institutions achieve patient satisfaction and increase revenue. They combine medical data with administrative software to streamline workflows while optimizing patient management. Tasks such as medical billing, appointment scheduling, inventory management, lab work and more are straightforward with patient management software.

Some software applications focus on general patient management, while others address specific processes such as inpatient tracking or blood testing. They all have in common that they make your job as a care provider smoother and more manageable. The FDA now considers software like this its own category of software as a medical device, so it’s important to know what’s what in this field!

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Primary Benefits

Patient management information systems offer a range of benefits to providers, big and small.

Here are just a few of them:

Ease Overburdened Staff

Administrative staffing is one of the significant drivers of high health care costs. Automating routine processes like patient flow management helps medical clinics and hospitals minimize their administrative expenses and data entry tasks. It also helps maintain efficiency — by easing workloads, it allows the same number of staff members to perform better, more meaningful work.

Automate Daily Tasks

Today, automation is a driver of success in the health care universe. Automation improves clinical efficiency, streamlines workflows and helps medical professionals deliver better care. It includes appointment scheduling, patient registration and more to optimize your medical staff’s productivity.

Improve Overall Practice Management

Solo practices benefit significantly from patient/practice management systems because of their limited resources. A patient management app helps streamline every element of a medical office including recordkeeping, charting, patient scheduling, claims processing and billing functions.

While larger organizations may purchase a software solution for each of these individual needs, small offices can get everything they need in a convenient package. With MPM, providers get instant access to patient information and a reliable method for updating charts, noting medications and other vital data. Accurate billing and bookkeeping keep the practice running smoothly and ensure your financial situation is squared away.

Provide Timely Patient Care

Larger clinics and hospitals can enjoy similar benefits to smaller ones but have the bonus of making patient-related processes more efficient. Because large practices have a heavy patient flow, the scheduling features of MPM are crucial to operations. An organized patient intake flow can mean the difference between a calm, orderly waiting room and a packed hotbed of irritation and frustration.

A comprehensive management program enables immediate record transfers, enhances patient workflow and eliminates treatment errors that result from inaccurate or incomplete paper records. The best patient management software allows providers to deliver timely, accurate and better-quality patient care.

Streamline Organizational Tasks

Do you remember when charts were in file cabinets in a hospital basement? Yeah, it’s amazing anyone ever received proper treatment. Luckily, those days are behind us. Practice management software offers charting modules (or integrates smoothly with your separate EHR or EMR module) to keep patient data, charts, appointments and billing information together in a single digital file.

Digital storage capabilities save space for a neater, more welcoming office — not to mention less harried employees. Additionally, digital information is more secure than paper files, so patient management programs help clinics and hospitals comply with HIPAA privacy regulations.

Execute Day-to-Day Operations

Automated process management streamlines and standardizes many administrative tasks, freeing medical staff to focus on what they do best: patient care. As a result, staff members may see improvements that help them find their jobs more fulfilling. A happy staff shows — when those providing care are happy and healthy, patients enjoy a higher standard of value-based medical care

Efficiency, accuracy and fewer errors positively impact the facility’s bottom line. Patients who receive quality care from a professional, focused medical team will remain with the practice. With management software, clinics and hospitals can increase patient capacity while providing quality care. More patients mean more profit.

Process Reimbursements Quickly

Digitally locate and process insurance information reports, remittance reports and claim advice reports, reducing the time taken previously. It eliminates the need for paperwork that helps billers check and process reimbursement requests quickly. This helps expedite claims processing from submission to clearance.

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Key Features

Not all of the patient management system features listed below are present in any single software application. However, each feature is part of some patient management systems currently available.

This comprehensive list can help you understand your practice’s unique requirements and get a head start on the software selection process.

Medical Records

The ability to track, store and access patients’ electronic medical records is vital to any health care provider. Some patient tracking software offers its charting module, and others integrate seamlessly with independent EHR/EMR solutions. Find out what you need before choosing a patient record management solution.

A medical records screen from eClinicalWorks.

Whichever you choose, charting features should record, update and archive crucial patient data within the system for access at future encounters. They produce flow sheets for each patient, which list immunizations, previous diagnoses, surgeries, test results, chronic issues and other important data.

Some MPMs integrate with other medical software, allowing easy transfer of electronic health records between care providers. Not all solutions offer this, so keep that in mind when choosing software.

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Scheduling

One of the most valuable clinic management system features is scheduling. The days of calling and making appointments via telephone are on their way out, and that’s good news for those looking to implement physician practice management. Patients can book their appointments online with 24/7 access to a patient portal with a patient scheduling module. They can also cancel and reschedule appointments in the system — which means your desk staff doesn’t have to.

Furthermore, patient manager software can send automated appointment reminders via email, text or phone call, reducing patients’ likelihood of forgetting appointments. Medical patient software also records appointment histories, including no-shows.

Kareos’ missed encounter report.

The system can even send out automated alerts when routine preventive care appointments are due. It’s convenient for the patients and staff and helps promote the number one thing people can do to stay healthy: get consistent preventive care.

Patient management programs don’t just schedule patients. The system can reserve the corresponding equipment and space required for the scheduled appointment. Some doctor-patient management systems even let you schedule your staff and physicians in the same system, so you don’t have to bounce back and forth between different software systems.

Patient Encounter

This group of clinical management software features tracks and manages the patient encounter before they even walk in the door. Patient check-in software modules generate electronic intake forms for them to fill out prior to their visit. This helps streamline a patient’s initial clinic or hospital visit and reduces wait times spent filling out forms in person.

Patient management solutions monitor exam room availability, as well as track the progress of each exam. Users can utilize the transcription features to take notes directly within the system, often in standardized SOAP format.

Once an appointment is over, the patient management system automates the checkout process, including copay collection and patient follow-up appointment scheduling.

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Inpatient Encounters

MPMs handle admissions and track wait times to get as many patients in contact with care providers as possible. Once patients are through with the admission process, your patient care management system lets users track patient locations, schedule surgeries and coordinate emergency responses to keep the heartbeat of your hospital beating smoothly.

On the logistical side of practice management features, users can schedule bed occupancy and maintenance to prevent overcrowding or unsanitary conditions. MPM helps manage medication doses to ensure patients receive the right amount of the proper medications. Once patients are well enough to go home, practice management or practice management systems let users plan and execute discharges. All this information is charted and graphed for easy absorption by staff.

Medical Billing

No one likes to talk about the financial side of healthcare, but it’s a necessary element of the industry. Hospital patient management systems offer medical billing modules that reduce the stress of the revenue cycle management process.

This feature manages patient accounts to keep a record of all past and present payment information and diagnoses. When a patient checks in, medical billing modules verify insurance eligibility to ensure everyone is on the same page about copays and deductibles.

CareCloud’s billing module dashboard.

After encounters, medications, surgeries or other services, MPM automates the billing process to standardize every bill and payment collected. When payments are due, the system issues automated payment reminders and patients can pay online through the online patient management system.

It can be challenging to keep track of everything during the billing process. Medical billing tracks insurance claim status and coordinates billing with insurance providers to process claims quickly and accurately. When there is an issue, MPMs offer a claim denial manager to assist in arguing a denied claim.

Automatic Reminders

Send automatic reminders to patients via email and phone to keep them informed about appointments and doctor availability. This helps reduce the number of no-shows and also increases patient satisfaction as they do not have to stand in long queues.

Security and Facility Requirements

Part of being a healthcare provider is ensuring your patients’ data is secure. All medical practice and patient information systems should be HIPAA HIPAA-compliant software in order to meet federal security standards. ICD-10 and ICD-11 code implementation is also crucial to make sure that other providers’ diagnoses of your system can be read and understood universally.

Many MPMs offer an internal direct messaging system where patients can directly send messages to their doctors. While this system is incredibly convenient and saves both patients and doctors time, it transmits sensitive information. It’s vital to ensure there is ample security for your system, including any software it integrates with.

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Top Patient Management Software Systems

Below, we’ve summarized each product along with its benefits, features and more.

NextGen

Ensure the best patient outcomes and value-based care with NextGen. It is designed for ambulatory care centers and provides myriad capabilities from patient management to telehealth. It helps clinicians engage patients in medical care planning to improve their health outcomes.

Optimize administrative tasks with Nextgen.

The EHR solution also optimizes mundane administrative work to make clinicians more productive and devoted to patients. This, in turn, helps clinics improve patient loyalty, which boosts the overall revenue stream.

Benefits

• Increase Revenue: Automate clinical documentation to free up time for physicians and staff. Doctors can focus more on patients, improving health outcomes and boosting revenue.
• Streamline Workflow: Connect multiple medical streams to form one uniform workflow that works better and quicker for everyone. Automate mundane tasks to take pressure off your staff’s shoulders.
• Provide Quality Reporting: Get hands-on, accurate, detailed reporting to identify and improve areas such as resource allocation and decision taking.
• Enable Ease of use: Easily navigate through the application and find icons quickly owing to an intuitive and user-friendly interface.

Primary Features

• Health Analytics: Collect meaningful analytics and actionable insights on several patient populations to deliver better care. Improve diagnosis by gaining reports on population risk, care coordination and more.
• Claims Management: Accept, review and pass off incoming claims to streamline billing services. Leverage automated billing statements and claims checks to avoid loss of money.
• Patient Information Management: Leverage the cloud-based patient information management system structure to allow anyone to edit, add and update patient information remotely. Add medical data to charts and documents with electronic means.
• Patient Portal: Allow patients to participate in their health care more actively. Enable them to make payments and ask for medical refills from the comfort of their homes.
• Practice Management: With robust capabilities, automate billing functions. Efficient practice management paves the way for better revenue streams.

Limitations

• Steep learning curve.
• Doesn’t provide a good customer care option.
• The system occasionally has slow response times.

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eClinicalWorks

For independent ambulatory centers, eClinicalWorks helps clinicians control all the critical clinical aspects in a practice. From documentation to scheduling, it provides tools to engage patients better and improve their health care experience. It also provides solutions for population health, helping doctors understand disease patterns.

Use eClinicalWorks’ templates to gather essential patient information.

It offers digital charting and documentation features to help clinics migrate to paperless operations. Organizations worldwide leverage eClinicalWorks to grow business and improve quality of care delivery.

Benefits

eClinicalWorks offer benefits such as better access to care, fewer errors and more. We’ve listed some below.

• Experience Fewer Errors: Eliminate the manual errors that creep in while entering and editing data multiple times. Electronic documentation not only makes recording data faster but also reduces errors.
• Provide Accurate Treatment: With documentation errors out of the way, physicians can provide accurate diagnoses quicker. Recognize health patterns and suggest the best treatment possible.
• Increase Productivity: Automate documentation and charting processes to free up more time for staff to focus on patients. This will improve patient retention and increase cash flow.
• Ensure Secure Information: Safeguard patient information by implementing passwords and security protocols to avoid data theft.
• Improve Patient Engagement: Offer online appointment scheduling and other self-help modules to engage patients better. Patients can actively participate and communicate with physicians efficiently.

Primary Features

eClinicalWorks features range from virtual assistant to offer telemedicine services.

• Virtual Assistant: Provide lab reports, appointment notes and more help to patients through the virtual assistant. Save time for physicians and medical staff to send and receive files manually.
• Scheduling: Allow patients to book online appointments with doctors of their choice from the comfort of their homes. Clear blocked schedules and reallocate resources throughout the clinic.
• Device Integration: Integrate with EEG and ECG sources through the internet browser. Use the collected data to make trend analyses and flowcharts.
• Telemedicine: Telemedicine services allow clinicians to provide patients with features such as online appointment scheduling. Patients can consult doctors from work or their homes.
• Revenue Cycle Management: Collect, process and catalog invoices, claim settlements and more with revenue management options.

Limitations

• Difficulties while navigating through the application.
• Doesn’t offer a robust integration capability.
• Inefficient customer support.

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athenahealth

A cloud-based medical solution, athenahealth primarily caters to hospitals, individual practices and insurance agencies. It helps improve clinical workflows and processes, removing the medical staff’s burden. In addition, it minimizes administrative work and mundane tasks to free up valuable time for physicians.

Pay and receive payments through athenahealth.

With claims and revenue hurdles reduced, health care practitioners can manage patients better. This makes it a valuable patient management software on the market.

Benefits

• Adaptability: Keep up with the ever-changing laws and regulations of health care. Leverage the cloud architecture to get real-time updates and stay up-to-date with changes.
• Increase Operational Efficiency: With a well-connected network of doctors and medical professionals, always stay in touch with crucial medical information. Improve diagnoses and treatment plans based on new findings.
• Interoperability: Enable clinicians to exchange medical files safely through online mediums. Interoperable systems allow clinics to connect with labs and other medical centers.
• Patient Engagement: Reach out to patients with promotions and pamphlets of new services via emails and messaging. Allow them to connect with doctors and medical staff quickly and without hassle.
• Online Scheduling: Encourage patients to use mobile-based medical applications to schedule appointments online. Reduce the stress of going through calenders and confirming appointments manually.

Primary Features

• Health Network: Physicians can access the network and learn about millions of case studies posted by other physicians and patients. This will improve not only their knowledge but also patient outcomes.
• Patient Portal: Allow patients to sign documents, update medical files and book appointments. This feature allows patients to pay bills and get in touch with physicians.
• Reporting: Improve business outcomes with real-time, updated reports to improve practice areas that need addressing. Recognize treatment methods and patient outcomes to improve certain services.
• Care Coordination: Connect all the areas of care from appointments and document updates to bill payments and patient discharge. Coordinate care to improve patient outcomes and make physicians’ lives easier.
• Authorization Management: Track and view authorization statuses from mobile devices. Reach out to outsourcing companies to contact payers and medical research requirements.

Limitations

• No claim scrubbing feature.
• The application is full of technical difficulties.
• Doesn’t offer robust reporting.

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EpicCare

An electronic medical recording (EMR) solution, EpicCare allows physicians to record patients’ medical data throughout the care cycle. It caters to patient management requirements of hospitals, independent clinics and ambulatory centers. It offers interactive dashboards, a patient portal, e-prescribing and more.

Leverage EpicCare to track patients’ ongoing medicines.

From clinical trials to analytics, it provides customized modules for every need. Doctors can also use video conferencing solutions to fulfill telemedicine needs of patients. Further, it helps clinicians leverage dashboards and more features to streamline workflows.

Benefits

• Reduce Errors: Reduce manual data entry and switch to digital modes of documentation to eliminate human errors. Assist doctors with accurate charts and patient data to help them provide the correct treatment.
• Enhance Patient Experience: Allow patients to book appointments, pre-register and communicate efficiently to improve the overall care experience.
• Protect Patient Information: With electronic forms and documentation, ensure the protection of patient data above all. Implement encryption, cloud backup and more to safeguard data adequately.
• Streamline Care Management: Provide a care portal to patients, helping them manage insurance, bill payments and more. Track customer relations and vendor lists from an integrated dashboard.
• Provide Clinical Support: Leverage features such as analytics, patient portal, integrated dashboard and more to grow your clinical practice. Recruit study participants for independent research and enter the data in the clinical flow.

Primary Features

• Patient Portal: Allow patients to track medical files, prescriptions, lab reports and more through mobile phones remotely. Improve engagement by sending patients digital forms and educational materials for signing and reading.
• Analytics: Access health care trends to analyze updated patient data to improve health outcomes. Make appropriate care decisions and care plans for patients.
• Revenue Cycle Management: Enable online payments and stay up to date with prices and invoices. Allow patients to create payment plans and streamline the process for them.
• Managed Care: Manage health insurance options by processing and submitting claims automatically. Stay on top of insurance settlements and approved claims to monitor all aspects of care.

Limitations

• Users can face system downtime periodically.
• Limited customization options.
• Doesn’t offer a friendly user interface.

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eMDs

A patient management software,eMDs, is a medical solution that helps clinics streamline complex administrative tasks. The intuitive and fully integrated suite of solutions improves operational practice efficiency and optimizes patient care.

Use eMDs’ meaningful use dashboard to track patients’ details.

It provides a range of templates and a medical content library to help clinics and physicians cover many care specialties. This also helps clinicians track and prepare patient cases across different medical institutions.

Benefits

• Achieve Interoperability: Transfer patient data to other medical institutions securely through digital pathways. Adhere to regulations and laws while exchanging patient data among care centers.
• Improve Patient Outcomes: An integrated suite of patient management solutions records patient care plans, prescriptions and other important medical data. Physicians can leverage this data and perform better diagnoses.
• Reduce Medical Errors: Eliminate transcribing and human errors that creep into a medical file to keep accurate records. Fewer errors mean better record keeping and save time and costs.
• Streamline Operational Tasks: Take care of complex tasks such as billing, scheduling and more with a suite of applications designed to improve overall productivity.
• Improve Revenue Cycle: Leverage the revenue cycle management tool to handle billing, invoices and other aspects of financial operations.

Primary Features

• Patient Portals: Use multilingual patient portals to help patients interact without issues. Grow your business and increase productivity by automating patient check-in tasks.
• Reporting: Leverage regular reporting to get actionable insights to improve your medical clinic overall. Focus on the areas that need addressing and grow the practice manifold.
• Financing Module: With a reliable patient management software suite, take care of clinical operations and financial workflows.
• Mobile Application: Clinicians and doctors can access files and necessary documentation with just a working internet connection.

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How We Choose Products

Our team of writers and analysts at SelectHub is committed to giving you the best recommendations based on our data. To make our list, products had to meet two criteria:

1. Closely match the topic
2. Earn a top-5 analyst score in our selection platform

Our analyst scores are based on an in-depth research process using primary and secondary sources. This includes SelectHub Analyst Briefings, direct communication with vendors, and reviewing materials such as user reviews, product brochures, specification sheets, case studies, user manuals, and technical documentation.

Our platform’s Scoring Engine processes the research and computes the analyst score. The score also factors in platform settings such as industry and company size.

Learn more about our research methodology and editorial standards

Final Thoughts

Patient management systems set new standards for excellence in patient care. They provide health care facilities of all sizes with greater economy, enhanced quality of service, more accuracy and more efficiency. Programs are available to suit a variety of medical practice needs. Now that you know what features to expect, you can start gathering requirements and comparing top vendors in the industry. Good luck on your journey to better patient care!

Which patient management system do you think is the best fit for your facility? Let us know in the comments.